St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1887-08-18
AWFUL DISASTER.
The Worst Accident i'm the Hfstory of
this Country.

night, August 10, when an excursion
train on the Toledo, Peoria and West
ern road dropped through burning
bridge and over 100 people were killed
and four times that number were more
or less badly injured.
The train was composed of six sleep
ing cars, six day coaches and chair
cars, and three baggage cars. 1t was
carrying $50 passengers, all excursion
lists, and was bound for Niagara Falls.
| The train had been made up all along
the line of the Toledo, Peoria and
| Western. When it drew out of Peoria
at eight o'clock in the evening, it was
loaded to its utmost capacity. Every
berth in the six sleepers was taken and
the day cars carried sixty people each.
The train was so heavy that two en-
gines were hitched to it. 1t was an
hour and half behind time, and those
fifteen coaches and two engines were
shooting through space at the rate of a
mile minute.
No stop was made at ChatswOrth,
and on the heavy train with its living
freight, sped through the darkness of
the night. Three milesi east of Chats
worth is a little slough, where the rail-
road crosses a dry run about ten feet
deep and fifteen feet wide. Over this
was stretched an ordinary wooden
trestle bridge, and as the excursion
train came laundering down on it,
what was the horror of the engineer on
the front engine when he saw that this
bridge was on fire. Right up before
his eyes leaped the bright flames, and
the next instant he was among them.
There was no chance to stop. Had
there been warning it would have TAX
en- half mile to stop that on-rushing
train, and the train was within 100
yards of the flames before they flashed
their fatal signals into the engineers
face, but he passed over in safety, the
first engine keeping the rails. AS it
went over the bridge fell beneath it,
and it could only have been the terrific
speed of the train which saved the lives
of the engineer and his fireman. But
the next engine went down, and in
stantly the deed of death was done.
Car rushed into car, coaches piled one
on top of another, and in the twinkling
of an eye nearly 100 people found in
slant death and so more were so hurt
they could not live. As for the wound
ed they were everywhere.
Only the sleeping coaches escaped,
and as the startled, half-dressed pas
sengers came tumbling out of them
they found such a scene of death as is
rarely witnessed, and such work to do
that it seemed as if human hands were
utterly incapable. 1t lacked but five
minutes of midnight. Down in the
ditch lay the second engineer McClin-
took dead and fireman Apologize bad
ly injured. On these were piled the
three baggage cars one upon another
like child's card house after he has
swept it with his hand. Then came
the six day coaches. They were tele-
scoped as cars never were before and
pressed into just space enough for
one. The second car had mounted off
it's trucks and crashed through the car
ahead of it, crushing the woodwork
aside like finder and lay there resting
on the tops of the seats, while every
passenger in the front car was lying
dead or dying underneath. Out of that
car but four people came alive. On
top of the second car lay the third, and
the bottom was smeared with the blood
of it's victims. The other three cars
were not so badly crushed, but they
were broken and twisted in every con-
ceivable way, and every crushed tim
Der and beam represented a crushed
human frame and a broken bone.
Instantly the air was filed with the
cries of the wounded and the shrieks
of the dying. The grOans of men and
the screams of women united to make
an appalling sound, and above all could
be heard the agonizing cries of little
children as in some instances they lay
pinned alongside their dead parents,
and there was another terrible danger
yet to be met. The bridge was still
burning, and the wrecked cars were
lying on and around the fire. Every
where in the wreck were wounded and
unhurt men, women and children
whose lives could be saved if they
could be gotten out, but whose death
and death in a most terrible form
was certain if the twisted wood and
broken cars caught fire, and to fight it
there was not a drop of water, and only
some so able bodied men who still had
presence of mind and nerve enough to
do their duty. The only light was the
light of the burning bridge. Earth
was the only weapon with which the
foe could be fought, but there was no
picks or shOvels to dig it up, no bas
kets or barrows to carry it. So des-
their fingers down into the earth, which
a long drOwth had baked almost as hard
as stone, and heaped the precious
handfuls upon the encrouching flames,
and with this earthwOrk, built handful
by handful for four hours, they kept
back the foe. While this was going
on other brave men crushed under
meath the wrecked cars, beneath the
fire and the wooden bars which held
as prisoners so many precious lives,
and with pieces of board and some
times their hands beat back the flames
when they flashed up alongside some
unfortunate wretch who was pinned
down by a heavy beam.
Finally the victory was won. The
fire was put out after four hours of en-
deavOr, and as it's last sparks died away
the dawn came up on a scene of horror.
While the fight had been going on men
had been dying, and there were not
so many wounded to take out of
the wreck as there had been four hours
before. But in the meantime the cOun
try had been aroused. Help had come
and the dead were laid reverently
alongside of each other out in the corn
fields, there were ready hands to take
them into ChatswOrth. The full tale
of the dead cannot be told for days.
No sooner had the wreck occurred
than scene of robbery began. Some
band of miscreants began plundering
the dead from this terrible accident,
taking even the shoes which covered
their feet. Who these wretcIes are is ,
not known. Whether they were a .
band of pickpockets who accompanied
the train or some rObber gang who
were lurking in the vicinity cannot be &